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Margaret Donnelly reflects on her Christmas visit to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre

Last week, Frances Gallagher wrote about her feelings as a first time visitor inside Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre. When it had been agreed that Justice and Peace Commissioners from each diocese in Scotland would sign Christmas cards for the Dungavel detainees, I was happy to be the one to go with Frances and to start the ball rolling, as my connection with the centre goes back two decades.

Our reactions would be very different, but the shared experience was, I think, very valuable.

First we had to make sure the cards would be approved by the centre  – it’s called a removal centre these days as asylum seekers there are intended to be removed from the UK.

Commissioners signed cards on the day of our December meeting. Numbers fluctuate daily, so we had to check with the management – and we added cards for the Dungavel manager and other members of staff.  A date was agreed for delivery and the manager invited Frances and I to have tea and cake with her. 

Frances, as you will have read in last week’s blog, was understandably disturbed by the procedure for getting inside the detention centre but having visited last year and made many visits in the first few years that the centre was open, I was not concerned. 

In fact, I found the procedure changed for the better. We entered by a different door and although there was still a reception desk, no thumbprints or photographs were taken, no body search made. It was ‘suggested’ that we leave our bags at reception. 

We were allowed to keep the box with the Christmas cards. 

My ‘first’ that day was being in the main part of the house, which was originally a 19th-century hunting lodge and summer retreat of the Dukes of Hamilton. We were taken up a grand staircase to meet the manager in her office.  Frances was introduced to her and we discussed the number of detainees and their spiritual needs.   The manager said that if Justice and Peace Scotland could help increase the centre’s involvement with the Catholic Church, she would take care of the necessary paperwork.  She also suggested the possibility of a Justice and Peace Commission visit the centre to meet with detainees. 

New to the job, the manager’s PA showed us some artwork by Dungavel detainees which she had chosen to decorate her new office. Our thought was that this talent should not be in a detention centre but rather be free to be explored in the community. There were other talents locked up there instead of sharing with our communities: the manager was expected to judge a baking contest downstairs.
Because she had spent longer with us than intended, the manager had missed the judging, but said the baking all looked great. What a pity it was detained behind locked doors.

We left feeling slightly conflicted. We detest the centre’s existence, but there is a level of caring evident at Dungavel. The ethos of the manager at the centre permeates through the staff. 

I’m sure all of us who have campaigned for the past 20 years hope that our presence outside those fences has in some way contributed to the current atmosphere inside.

Frances Gallagher, Justice and Peace Campaigns officer, reflects on her first visit inside Dungavel immigration detention centre

I have to admit I was quite nervous and my question to Margaret as we drove to Dungavel to meet with the centre manager and deliver the Justice and Peace Scotland Christmas cards for those detained was “What’s it like inside, Margaret?” 

Margaret Donnelly has protested at the existence of Dungavel as an immigration detention centre since it opened nearly 20 years ago and nothing fazes her, so it was a comfort to me that Margaret was taking me under her wing for what was my first visit inside a prison.

When we arrived, Margaret pressed the buzzer and spoke to the person on the other end.  After a time, the first gate was automatically opened and we were instructed to step into a long narrow cage and await the second gate being opened.  It probably wasn’t that long before that second gate did open, but it felt like forever. I was anxious and didn’t want to do or say anything “wrong” – although I’m not sure now, looking back on it, how rational I was being and why I would think that delivering Christmas cards could somehow get me into trouble?  I think I was acutely aware of my freedom / liberty at that point and the thought, no matter how irrational it was, of losing it was scary.

The guard who let us through that second gate and into the grounds didn’t seem friendly.  There was nothing wrong with anything he said or did but I felt that he was hostile to our presence.  We, after all, were the people who stood outside campaigning for the closure of his workplace. 

Once inside the reception area, staff were friendly. We chatted briefly and they told us about local carol singers who were coming in later that night to perform a concert for everyone. They also told us that we had to leave all keys and phones with them.  They “suggested” we leave our bags with everything in them at reception.  We didn’t object. 

Would I leave my bag, purse etc., with a stranger in any other scenario?  I felt disarmed. As for most women, my life is in my bag: all my identification, bank cards, keys and personal effects.  No matter what situation I’m in, I can usually delve into my bag and pull out something useful - a tissue, a carrier bag, a pen, my phone with my diary on it.  Not today. 

This was a business meeting but there was no doubt who was in charge.

Our meeting went well and there was definitely an effort to bridge our opposing positions from both sides.   We talked about what we can do to support those detained and did come away with a sense of some shared common ground.  We would never agree that immigration detention is the correct way to treat those seeking sanctuary in Scotland. But until there is a change in the law and community alternatives to imprisonment for asylum seekers are adopted, then we must work together to ensure the best conditions for those who have committed no crime yet are detained in prison.

At the same time, we have to put all our efforts into campaigning for an end to the practice of immigration detention.

A personal view from Cath McGee, Refugee Survival Trust, Manager of the Destitute Asylum Seeker Service (DASS)